NEWS IN BRIEF: A summary of developments across Los Angeles County | Community News File / Los Angeles

Gang Member Who Wrote Book Faces Assault Charge

"Monster" Kody Scott, a former gang member and prison inmate who became a best-selling author, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

Patrol officers spotted Scott in South-Central Los Angeles on Sunday engaging "in what appeared to be some kind of narcotics transaction," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Don Cox. When the officers pulled over to question Scott, who was on parole, he ran to the second floor of an apartment building, Cox said.

"The officers went after him," Cox said. "When they confronted him, he appeared combative and attempted to push one of the officers over the railing. They had a brief altercation and then took him into custody."

Scott was being held without bail.

He wrote "Monster: the Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member" while serving a four-year robbery sentence at Pelican Bay state prison. He received a six-figure advance, and the book sold more than 100,000 copies.

Scott was paroled in September 1995. Five months later, police pulled him over and discovered about a gram of marijuana in the car. About a week later, parole agents burst through the front door of his Moreno Valley home, intending to test him for drug use. But Scott slipped out a door and ran away.

He was captured in May 1996 by police while he was signing autographs on the porch of a South-Central house.